Grain drying is a process of drying grain to reduce or prevent spoilage and to inhibit microbial growth during storage. This process is used to reduce the moisture content of wheat, soybean, rice, barley, oats, etc. To dry grain, common practice has been for a farmer employee to haul grain from their bin to a commercial dryer, or to shuttle grain back and forth from their bin to their own on-farm grain dryer. Plus, one problem with using traditional commercial mechanical dryers when drying a crop like lentils, for example, is that the process chips the lentils, which takes the grade off of the lentils. According to one calculation, the cost of downgrading from a No. 1 quality lentil to a No. 2 quality lentil is $7.57 a bushel, or $36,000 per quarter section, based on an average yield of 30 bushels per acre. Traditional drying process not only increase the chances of kernel damage, but are also time consuming, expensive, inefficient, and potentially dangerous.
The present invention removes these problems by utilizing a heating unit, ducting (e.g., hose), and grain drying adapter to introduce heated air directly into an aeration system included on many grain bins. The heating unit may be a mobile device and may be a flameless unit, such as the flameless heater as described in U.S. application Ser. No. 13/834,942, or a conventional straight air heater. This system gives farmers the ability to more effectively dry down grain without having to move it out of the bins, saving time, equipment, and trucking costs. Plus, multiple bins can be dried with a single heating unit (e.g., heat exchanger). Moreover, since this system may be portable, it is beneficial for remote locations that lack access to power. Also, there is no risk of explosion or burns due to open flames or high-temperature steam, which also makes this system safer to operate around grain dust than flame-based heaters. Plus, using the aeration system on the grain bin alone to dry the grain has negative effects on the drying process when the outside temperature changes, e.g., unseasonable temperature, nighttime temperature, high or low humidity situations, etc. The present system introduces a predetermined air temperature into the aeration system, day and night.